GoBigRead Event Summary and Reflection (sorry so long)

I attended the GoBigRead event that incorporated a UW-Madison course with the book, I am Malala. I did not know what to expect when I read the description for this event, but I was pleasantly surprised with where it was heading after the professor of Comm Arts 181/100 introduced the layout of how the event was going to proceed. Seven students from the class were required to relate a significant story from their lives to a bigger picture. The goal of this was to capstone the semester and all the hard work each student put into the course. Also, they wanted to impact the lives of others in a similar way that Malala Yousafzai has done.

The professor was an extremely good speaker, mainly in the way that he was able to project his voice with good volume and flow. He also kept constant eye contact with the audience, which allowed him to connect with them in a positive way. This lead me to believe that he had a great understanding of how to teach his students in effective speaking methods. I saw that each student was able to replicate the professor’s speaking manner because they were able to keep eye contact and flow through their speech with ease. Although, I did see that some of the students had trouble keeping eye contact though, and some had a problem with being monotonous. This made it difficult to pay attention to their speeches at points. I did enjoy some of the topics and stories of the students. They were able to make it very relatable to not only my life, but the lives of any college student.

I was primarily affected by speeches on water scarcity and sleep deprivation. These are both topics that really interest me and I would like to learn more about in my free time. Water scarcity interests me because the concept of a sustainable and greener Earth is valuable, not only to me, but to the Earth as a whole. And sleep deprivation is something I like to think about because it tremendously affects how you carry yourself and how you think.

The speech on water scarcity was given by a female student that learned about the problem in one of her courses. She decided to do more research on this topic and share the information with other students. She shared the fact that the amount of usable water on Earth is ~2%.  I also learned that the Great Lakes are a major source of freshwater for the Midwest. Although, much of the usable water is being contaminated, polluted and misused by humans. Farming plays a huge role in the misuse of water due to ineffective irrigation methods. She also was able to give firsthand accounts on the need for water because she went on a mission trip. Her solution to this was that the government requiring everyone to recycle and reuse water.

The next speech I really enjoyed was the one on sleep deprivation. The speaker was extremely energetic and was able to interact with the crowd, which made it a very enjoyable presentation. His reason for choosing a speech on sleep deprivation was that he failed a midterm due to only getting 6 hours of sleep. This speech made me glad that I get 8 hours of sleep a night because I now know that lack of sleep leads to decreased brain activity. Sleep allows your brain to recharge and redevelop neurotransmitters. His solution was to schedule 7-8 hours of sleep into your daily schedule.